On the free rotations of rigid bodies with a liquid-filled gap

Abstract

We consider the system constituted by a hollow rigid body whose cavity contains a homogeneous rigid ball, and let the gap between the solids be entirely filled by a viscous incompressible fluid. We investigate the free rotations of the whole system, i.e., motions driven only by the inertia of the fluid-solids system once an initial angular momentum is imparted on the whole system. We prove the existence of global weak solutions and local strong solutions to the equations of motion. In addition, we prove that the fluid velocity as well as the inner core angular velocity relative to the outer solid converge to zero as time approaches infinity.